1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a molded plastic hood for a cable connector plug, and more specifically to a molded plastic hood which is economical, rugged and easy to assemble securely to a cable connector plug and an associated cable regardless of the diameter of the cable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the manufacture of certain jacketed electrical cables, such as for use in PBX and telephone switching apparatus, it is standard practice to secure cable conductors to the terminals of a connector plug and to provide the plug and the adjacent portion of the cable with a protective hood. For example, a commonly used hood of metal construction is secured at its forward end to the plug by a suitable metal screw and a pair of spaced integral hook portions which define slots for slidably receiving housing portions of the connector plug. Adjacent its rearward end the hood is secured to the connector plug by a pair of eyelets in its side walls which slidably receive projecting ears on the plug. The hood also includes a rearwardly projecting portion for overlying the jacket of the cable and having downwardly extending spaced clamping lugs for straddling the jacket. The cable is secured to the hood by another metal screw which is inserted through apertures in these lugs adjacent their lower ends and tightened to clamp the lugs about the cable jacket. When the jacket is of a relatively small diameter, since the positions of the lugs and the locations of the screw apertures therein are fixed, it is necessary to provide one or more inserts or spacers between the cable jacket and the clamping screw in order to secure the cable to the hood.
The protective hood also may be of plastic construction, this being advantageous over a metal hood from the standpoint of eliminating shorting of adjacent wired equipment by the hood, and/or the shorting of the terminals of the plug and/or the cable conductors by the hood. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,530, issued Apr. 9, 1974 to S. J. Lapraik, discloses a plastic hood of telescoping construction. As in the case of the abovementioned metal hood, however, this plastic hood is secured to a cable connector plug by a pair of screws at its forward and rearward ends. A rearward section of the hood also includes an upper rearward extension which is secured to a cable by a self-locking cable tie. In the alternative, the cable tie may be replaced with a special housing which carries a lower clamp engageable against the underside of the cable jacket by the tightening of an associated third screw.
The J. Sugar U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,960, issued Feb. 26, 1974, also discloses the use of a self-locking cable tie in the securing of a cable to a two-part electrical connector shell of plastic construction, and the E. W. Forney, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,364, issued Aug. 10, 1965, discloses a plastic protective cover for a cable connection which snaps into position on a base member and over a terminal assembly to which cable conductors are connected.